The Pledge of Allegiance

Mazuko

I am only 22 years old, I have not had the experiences that many of you have had, nor have many of you had the experiences that I have. I am the most patriotic individual that I personally know, and frankly it is scary when you realize that those that pretended to be patriotic after September 11th were simply jumping on the band wagon. Do you see the same things today that we did after september 11th? Or even during the Vietnam War? No, we don't but after watching three young AMERICAN CHILDREN playing Terrorists in the park today, I was left with a horrid taste in my mouth and I had to say something.


CItizens of the United States of America,

The state of our Nation is not strong, the state of our Nation is not weak. The state of our Nation is sad . I remember when we as students took pride in The Pledge of Allegiance, I remember when we took our hats off any time the National Anthem was being played. I remember going to Independence Day parades or Veterans Day parades and helping the men who lost their legs in war to their feet when the National Anthem was played. I remember when being an American didn't mean having the best car, the newest clothes, the most money, or the next big thing of the time. I remember when being an American meant helping your neighboors, building forts, playing cowboys and indians, playing army where you hated being the Germans. I remember when being an American meant something to EVERYONE. Not just truck pulls, football, money, and arrogant teenagers. I remember when being an American meant being all we could be, helping the less fortunate, doing what we could to better the lives of everyone. It is a shame that ALL of the children in America today do not have the same memories.


Alot of people have forgotten what The Pledge of Allegiance is, and you know sometimes we need to be reminded what it stands for.

Linked here is a speech given by Red Skeleton, yes Red Skeleton that hillarious clown of old (back when we only had 48 States). He takes the time to explain the Pledge of Allegiance word by word and at the end of his speech he says a few words that foreshadowed our most recent past.

Please, I implore you to listen to this mp3 and state your beliefs and how you personally feel about the Pledge of Allegiance and our great nation.

The United States of America

RedSkeletonPledge.zip

digerati

I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America. And to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That's how I remember it.

Dyre Straits

I'm old enough (more than twice your age) to remember seeing Red Skelton's weekly TV program. I recall seeing him, at least once a year, do the Pledge of Allegiance skit he wrote and perfected.

It always brought tears to my eyes and a knot in my throat.

I'm an American patriot, too. And, it saddens me when I encounter those who frown upon one's expressions of patriotism. I may not be proud of everything America has done, but I'm downright proud to be an American!

EDIT: For those who would like a hard copy of this presentation:

http://www.usflag.org/skeltonspledge.html

digerati

I love this country. That doesn't mean that other countries are worse, but I love this country, because it's mine, it's yours, it's everyones, no matter of race, religion, or sex. I can go out with a Chinese girl and not be spat upon or frowned upon by society, I can go and spend my money my own way, with guidance from my loving parents of course. And if we do get a dumbass as a president, if need be we can impeach him, for we truly have the power, when that gets installed in Iraq they will still hate us, but I will smile because I know they will enjoy their freedom.

bird chest

I am almost sad to be in the America that we are in today. I go down the street and say hi to people who just look away and ignore me. Where the British flag is more trendy to wear then the american flag. We need to have more pride in our country. Instead of whinning so much about what we don't have be happy for what we do have. We have freedom. We have free speech. We have the right to choose our leader. We are the most wealthy country in the world and the most powerful. We need to be thankful but all I see is people who demand more, everything we have is not enough. Just a country working for ourselves no one else. Anyone who does not like it move to Africa for a while and then come back. With all my 17 years of experience this is how I feel.

I am sorry if that was really sappy.

bird chest

Do they hate us I was not under the impression that they did.

SaberZ

Pretty much the way it is anywhere in the world.


Back in the day you could go over to your neighbor's and have a friendly conversation. Nowadays people might have the nerve to call the police because you are on their property. Good or bad


The times have changed, and most of the people have changed with it. Quite sad

digerati

Let me rephrase. The ones that are on TV hate us. The ones that were living normal daily lives under Saddamn hate us. The ones that felt nothing was wrong with the way he ruled hate us.

Now the other 90% of the country loves us, (you know, the ones that don't have computers, e-mail, etc) but you won't hear about them, wonder why?

The_Neon_Cowboy

yea but now they stopped and are thinking of changing is because it says "god". considering the constitution and our founding was based mostly on religious beliefs it insane.

The_Neon_Cowboy

Two states? um i've been all over the US thats how its ritten an said everywere (that i know off)... under god is in there.... and they have stoped saying it in schools

BluntmaN

The past always looks better than the future but this doesnt mean that it is. It is a widely accepted psychological phenomenon that when we look at our past it seems better than today.

As for the unamerican allienation well I guess what it is a widely spread problem affecting most developed countries. Allienation is the plague of the 21st century according to many. We stop trusting and loving those around us for fear that they will not trust or love us back. Mostly it affects urban and metropolitan areas that are overpopulated making it imposible to actually know those around you. This is exactly why we(the chemical generation) go to dance clubs and do drugs cause we simply cannot feel comfortable with total strangers unless we are stoned or on ecstacy.

About the American dream well millions all over America are waking up to find out that it is a children's tale. It is a harsh reality to see the poor sleeping in the street and folks willing to kill you for a pair of trainers but it is true never the less.

As for Iraq and how much the Iraqis love you and the freedom you guys imposed on them well all I have to say is that freedom is never given it is earned with sacrifice and blood.

Finaly about the god word ..... I am not going to touch this with a ten foot pole.

GutterPunk

Bandwagon this Bandwagon that... what happened to America supposed to be about unique indivuduals... Everything has turned so socially run things do get out of hand. Wow this speach is great! Our schools have set these standards as we grow up with... having to wear the nicest clothes drive the best car etc. this generation has grown up with this and i worry more and more on how things will change because things will! Most likely not for the good.... This country was built on the principles of GOD the reason why we came here for our religious freedoms... Things need to change.... why must we nit pick?

bluelight

God?

Which one?

Bluelight

raid517

I think he means the American one Blue...

GJ

digerati

While I don't exactly believe in the whole God set this land aside for us and the manifest destiny crap which helped cause the removal and transplantation of native Americans (which was just utterly horrible), I do believe this land is something special.

Mazuko

Manifest Destiny was great for the European. Do keep in mind however the timeperiod of which this particular audio clip was made in. It was a time of totally different ideological beliefs as to manifest destiny etc. etc. etc.

American God? Don't be so bull headed.

I actually yelled at those kids that were PLAYING THE ATTACK ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER as the FRICKING TERRORISTS!! I litterally yelled at them so loudly that their mother came out and apologized for their blatant stupidity and disreguard. Their MOTHER APOLOGIZED and they had no fricking idea what they were in trouble for!! WHAT THE HECK?

This topic was made for that reason.

digerati

While to the muslim world we are considered a Christian nation, I think that God applies to any God, be it Jesus, Jahovah, Allah, or whatever. I think it was kind of left open like that for your own God to step in.

raid517

Well I can't fathom where you are coming from on this one really. One thing about manifest destiny is that this was a delusion my own country (the UK) suffered at one time too. Because we were special - and because we were blessed by God, it somehow gave us a right to take over the world - with total disregard for what any of the people in the countries we took over thought about t.

At the time the belief was that we were really such nice people - and really our way was far better than anyone else's way - and although the locals might object initially to us taking over their country - eventually in time they would come to love us when they saw the benefits of cooperating.

I have heard exactly those attitudes expressed by several American members of this forum. Indeed I expect any large dominant power eventually comes to feel that way - that because they currently enjoy some success in the world, their status must mean that they have been blessed by God.

It doesn't always take too long for a country to come unstuck if they start to believe this too much.

Again like Blue said, what about the people of this world who believe in different Gods, or who simply have different belief structures? Are you going to compel (or even just pressure) them to swear allegiance to a God to which they don't believe? Surely then you are asking them to swear a false allegiance to the pledge as a whole?

I don't think anyone is under any illusion about exactly what God they are supposed to be swearing allegiance to. Even though you say it could be any god, with maybe 3 people in a class of 30, there is certainly no mystery who the other 27 think they are praying to. There is no clause denoting the ability to express a personal preference in the pledge, as far as I am aware of.

I swear allegiance under God seems to narrow. Swearing allegiance while defending the rights of all men to believe in whomever they should so please sounds a far more practical way to go about things - if that is, swearing allegiance to a country has any real value at all.

GJ

digerati

You aren't swearing allegiance to the "God." You are swearing to the republic under the protection of "God" which brings us back to the thinking of this land was put here by "God." The whole Manifest destiny thing, this is a land with many climates, resources, and fertile land. Just California alone produces enough corn to feed the entire nation. So you aren't swearing allegiance to any God, but to the republic, which is under the protection of God, if you don't believe in any God then it just leaves the republic protected by man then.

Take out the under God if you want to, it's not that important to me. Seems kind of silly to have it there anyways, I doubt God would bless or protect this entire nation.

BWX

Explaining God to an atheist is like explaining color to a blind man. If you don't believe in God, don't say it- no one is ever holding a gun to anyone's head.


Really? Who on this forum that is American has expressed this view? I want proof in the form of links to posts before I believe that crap.

raid517

I'm pretty sure I know what God is supposed to be. I had it drummed into me for long enough when I was growing up. Unfortunately I just never bought it.

As for previous commentary about some Americans believing their way is so much better than anyone else's - there are lots of examples of this on these threads, but since I'm feeling slightly lazy today, try the above comment for size:

As I said that sounds suspiciously like when they see the benefits of our way of life they will eventually come round to our way of thinking.

If you want to get into a round of nitpicking, then feel free. But again this feeling of a nation, republic, people or whatever blessed by God is nothing new. People have felt it since before the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians - and probably believed it as much as a lot of Americans do today.

It is just a phase. In time it will pass.

GJ

BWX

Yeah, that' the way most people feel, and most Americans don't hate other countries for any reason. The funny thing is, most other countries have large populations that hate the US with a passion. Did you hear the Mexican crowd at a soccer match chanting Usama, Usama, Usama, and booing the American team, the US, and the "God bless America" song - (or maybe it was the National Anthem, not sure) - But still, not everyone, but huge populations in many counties absolutely hate you and me and everything about this country for their own selfish reasons..

Did you watch Conan Obrian the last few days? He's in Toronto, and that damn crowd was booing the Seattle Space Needle! They had no sense of humor at all- every American thing Conan mentioned even as a joke the crowed angrily boo-ed and shouted.. I know that not all Canadians hate the US, but a whole bunch of them do- with no sense of humor at all. When Canadians or people from any other country stand up in the crowd in the US at the Conan Show or Leno show, they are applauded, and the US crowed applauds people from other countries. All I see is hatred from most other countries directed at the US, it's bullshit. First thing you see when Conan was doing interviews was French speaking Canadians ranting about Bush- those people have no sense of humor. Seriously , people need to lighten up. Most Americans don't have one ounce of ill will toward any other country or their citizens, accept for maybe France after all that crap with the war- But even that will fade, still countries all over the world will continue to hate the US for no other reason than jealousy as far as I can tell. It's ridiculous- the damn Mexican crowd that was chanting Usama probably got most of their money from relatives working in the US and sending it back to them or American tourists spending money down there.. Mexico is a country that exists because of the support of the US, they should be grateful, but no, they boo the American soccer team. That is complete bullshit and we should send that country a message after that display- but of course we won't, we will continue to support that country as a friend, as they spit on us when we turn around, or in our face in this case.. Pretty dumb of us I'd say.

Any Canadians shouldn't get pissed because I reported what I saw- I take every person as an individual and have no prejudice. The internet in most cases is a whole different ballgame- MOST of the time it seems people can get over their prejudices when posting in a forum like this, MOST of the time... In fact I spent allot of time in Canada last year, about 3 weeks all together, in the town of Windsor, Ontario-
Most people there were quite friendly, but you could tell there were some that picked up on our accent and the way we "dressed like Americans" and gave us some dirty looks. I remember ordering some frenchfries at a restaurant one night in Windsor, it was an open type restaurant and I remember when I ordered them the waitress kind of paused, raised her voice quite a bit and said "did you say FRENCH FRIES?"

Everyone in the restaurant kinda paused and looked around as if I were going to say "Freedom fries" or something... there was about 50 people in there- LOL what a bunch nutcases! I have never said Freedom fries ever, and never will- they are French fries and have been for the last 31 years of my life. It's almost like the whole restaurant wanted me to say freedom fries so they could wait outside and mug me when I finished my meal and so the cook could have reason to spit in my food.. Seriously, it was that bad. The funny thing is, when she asked me that, I didn't even think about it- it didn't hit me till 5 minutes later that the whole reason she paused was to make me say "French fries" again. LOL After that it seemed like she was much friendlier to us, as was the rest of the people in the place, like somehow because I didn't say freedom fries that I was "cool with the French people" or something.. I swear to God this happened, and it was nothing but funny to me that grown adults would care if I said freedom fries or French fries.. I think next time I'll say freedom fries just to see what reaction I get, then of course I will leave the restaurant because I'm sure my food will not be as pure as I would like after that..
Again, I'm not bashing Canadians, most Canadian people I know are right here on DH, and all seem to be cool as hell. This was just one of my real life experiences from the last time I went to Canada, which I actually had fun doing, it's a cool place overall. It's just strange how much anti-American sentiment there is out there, I can't imagine going to France, I'd fear for my life. Most of those people hate us and they probably don't even know why- I never did anything to those people, and I don't personally have anything against them, accept of course for the fact that they hate the US?! Insanity I tell ya, freaking insanity.

digerati

It's not a matter of coming around to our way of thinking. It's a matter of them not being shot/tortured/stoned/raped because they don't agree with a ruthless dictator.